page_title: Paul von Hindenburg
section_title: Analysis of Political Career & Cultural Impact
hierarchical_section_title: Paul von Hindenburg / Legacy / Analysis of Political Career & Cultural Impact
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Porzellanmedaille zu Ehren des 80sten Geburtstags von Paul von Hindenburg am 2. Oktober 1927,hergestellt von der Staatlichen Porzellan-Manufaktur Meißen, Durchmesser 46 mm. English: Porcelain medal in honour of the 80th birthday of Paul von Hindenburg on Oct. 2, 1927,produced by Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen, Germany, diam. 46 mm.
context_page_description: Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, typically known simply as Paul von Hindenburg, was a German general and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany from 1925 until his death during the Weimar Republic. During his presidency, he played a key role in the Nazi Machtergreifung in January 1933 when, under pressure from advisers, he appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.
  Paul von Hindenburg was born on 2 October 1847 to a family of minor Prussian nobility in the province of Posen. Upon completing his education as a cadet, he enlisted in the Third Regiment of Foot Guards as a second lieutenant. Hindenburg thereafter saw combat during the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars. In 1873, he was admitted to the prestigious Kriegsakademie in Berlin where he studied for 3 years before being appointed to the Army's General Staff Corps. Later in 1885, he was promoted to the rank of major and became a member of the Great General Staff. Following a five-year teaching stint at the Kriesgsacademie, Hindenburg steadily rose through the army's ranks to become a lieutenant-general by 1900.
context_section_description: After overseeing Germany's crushing victory at Tannenberg, Paul von Hindenburg became the center of a massive personality cult that persisted throughout his life. Henceforth, he was lauded as the living ideal of German masculinity and patriotism.  According to historian Anna Menge:
  The intensity, longevity, striking political and social breadth, and political deployment of the adulation for Hindenburg—in short, the power of the Hindenburg myth from 1914 until 1934 and beyond—was a political phenomenon of the first order....The Hindenburg myth was one of the central narratives in German public discourse during the First World War, the Weimar Republic, and the early years of Nazi rule. The striking polyvalence of the narrative—it extolled not only right-wing notions of authoritarian leadership but also more bi-partisan national values, such as salvaging something positive from war and defeat and self-affirmation in the face of crisis—meant that Hindenburg’s myth could be deployed by different groups, at different times, and for different purposes. Although promoted first and foremost by German nationalists, especially in Weimar’s early years, some elements of the Hindenburg myth had considerable cross-party appeal. That his initiation as a mythical figure rested on national defence and a battle fought against the arch-enemy of German Social Democracy, Tsarist Russia, had endeared him to many on the moderate left from 1914 onwards.
  During World War I, The most celebrated tribute to Hindenburg  was a 12 meter tall wooden likeness erected in Berlin. What admirers paid to drive in nails — ultimately 30 tons of them —went to war widows. Smaller versions were erected throughout Germany. The wooden images and his photographs, invariably portray a resolute, indomitable warrior, wearing a stern likeness.
  The famed zeppelin Hindenburg that was destroyed by fire in 1937 was named in his honor, as was the Hindenburgdamm, a causeway joining the island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein that was built during his time in office. The previously Upper Silesian town of Zabrze (German: Hindenburg O.S.) was also renamed after him in 1915, as well as the SMS Hindenburg, a battlecruiser commissioned in the Imperial German Navy in 1917 and the last capital ship to enter service in the Imperial Navy.  The Hindenburg Range in New Guinea, which includes perhaps one of the world's largest cliffs, the Hindenburg Wall, also bears his name.
  Historian Christopher Clark has criticized Hindenburg in his role as head of state for:
  withdrawing his solemn constitutional oaths of 1925 and 1932 to make common cause with the sworn enemies of the Republic.  And then, having publicly declared that he would never consent to appoint Hitler to any post...levered the Nazi leader into the German Chancellery in January 1933.  The Field Marshal had a high opinion of himself, and he doubtless sincerely believed that he personified a Prussian ‘tradition" of selfless service.  But he was not, in truth, a man of tradition...As a military commander and later as Germany's head of state, Hindenburg broke virtually every bond he entered into.  He was not the man of dogged, faithful service, but the man of image, manipulation and betrayal.″
caption: Porcelain medal in honour of Hindenburg's 80th birthday on Oct. 2, 1927, produced  by Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen
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